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- Referring to Trump and his followers' crusade against masks as a "culture war" misunderstands what it actually was – an authoritarian's attempt to bend reality.
- Unlike a culture war, the fight over masks was not a question of values, but of facts. It wasn't an attempt to win consensus either. An insurmountable majority of Americans disagreed with Trump on this.
- By eschewing masks, Trump was trying to use his power to impose his fantasy that the coronavirus is innocuous on the American people.
- But he lost that fight. In our society, the coronavirus is too violent a reality for Trump to bend.
- This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
The debate over wearing masks was never part of a culture war, and when we refer to it as such we miss the depth and danger of its significance. The debate was, instead, another marker flashing red on the march toward authoritarianism in the days of Donald Trump.
Mercifully, when Trump reversed his stance and recommended mask wearing at a press conference last Tuesday, he lost. It was a significant setback for him. But what he lost has nothing to do with culture. It had to do with his power over America's reality.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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See Also:
- The latest Republican coronavirus aid plan proves the GOP is living in a fantasyland
- The US meat industry is making people sick. If we want to fight disease and prevent future pandemics, it needs to be completely transformed.
- Trump used a high-risk, high-reward strategy to win in 2016. It looks like the same risky strategy is about to blow up in his face this time around.
from Business Insider https://ift.tt/3g2EVkm
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